attachment to life = obstacle to liberation [ Fear of Death ]

[Guest guest]

"Fear of death is the continuous desire to live which is rooted even in the

minds of the wise. (II. ix.)"

Thank You Omprem. Just some thoughts : Can we remove this fear of death [ yes!

of course we can ] but how? This brings me back to my many other encounters. As

ex hospice nurse I am being asked this question many times : Why me? but most

often I received this : I am afraid to die ! I am not ready! Its like talking to

someone who is being condemn to die and not knowing what crime they have

committed. It’s a soul searching encounter, but can be very painful at time.

 

Someone told me once, it is this fear of death that majority of people becomes

spiritualist. Should this be the reason?

 

 

 

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**********************

 

 

".. you may shoot me with your words... you may cut me with your eyes ... you

may kill me with your hatefulness, but still like air, I will rise ..."

 

Maya Angelou

 

" Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and

leave foot prints on our heart and we are never ever the same again "

 

Shakti Sadhana Homepage at http://www.shaktisadhana.org

 

 

 

Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes

 

 

[Guest guest]

OM fellow traveller

 

We can remove the fear of death by questioning the continuous

desire to live. Why do we want to live? Why do we identify with the

physical body so completely? Are we other than our body? Our

mind? Our emotions? Our intellect? These all change. Does our

core identity change? Is it in constant flux? Or, do we have an

unchanging, eternal being?

 

By paying close attention to the events of our lives we notice

patterns that tend to draw us inward and toward a sense of our

spiritual nature.

 

As the mind becomes quieter we become more aware of our

spiritual nature.

 

So, if we want to answer our questions about our nature and our

death such as you encountered as a nurse in the hospice (a very

sattvic job I would add), we need to develop focus, patience, a

quiet mind and serenity. This can occur when our sadhana

includes:

 

1. proper exercise such as hatha yoga or chi gong.

2. proper breathing such as abdominal breathing and

pranayama.

3. proper diet. i.e. vegetarian with no drugs, alcohol, caffeine,

garlic, onions, hot spices or prepared fast foods.

4. proper relaxation that includes adequate sleep and a

detached attitude during the waking state.

5. positive thinking and meditation.

 

If it is true that fear of death is the reason that the majority of

people become spiritual seekers, what is the problem with that?

That is turning a negative into a positive. The only drawback that I

see is that fear of death may not become an issue until old age

when habits are ingrained and much more difficult to root out

especially when the person is slowing down in terms of mental

edge and physical conditioning. Much better to start your spiritual

search and sadhana earlier.

 

Om Aim Hrim Klim Chamundaye Viche Namaha

 

Omprem

 

 

 

, "N.Madasamy"

<ashwini_puralasamy> wrote:

> "Fear of death is the continuous desire to live which is rooted

even in the minds of the wise. (II. ix.)"

> Thank You Omprem. Just some thoughts : Can we remove this

fear of death [ yes! of course we can ] but how? This brings me

back to my many other encounters. As ex hospice nurse I am

being asked this question many times : Why me? but most often

I received this : I am afraid to die ! I am not ready! Its like talking

to someone who is being condemn to die and not knowing what

crime they have committed. It's a soul searching encounter, but

can be very painful at time.

>

> Someone told me once, it is this fear of death that majority of

people becomes spiritualist. Should this be the reason?

>

>

>

>

**********************************************************************

********************************

>

>

> ".. you may shoot me with your words... you may cut me with

your eyes ... you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still like

air, I will rise ..."

>

> Maya Angelou

>

> " Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay

for a while and leave foot prints on our heart and we are never

ever the same again "

>

> Shakti Sadhana Homepage at http://www.shaktisadhana.org

>

>

>

> Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes

>

>

[Guest guest]

I beg to differ with you sir, I turned spiritualist,not because of

the fear of death,But on the contrary,because of the love of it. For

me to die is the nicest thing on the earth,almost

libration,moksha,but I am afraid of the temporary nature of It. so a

rebirth have to be avoided, hence spiritualism,....one has to destroy

all samskaras before he destroy the body.....and that may take one or

many lives, but very few has the stomach for this kind of sadhana,

most of them say,now I have become the sage, I will uplift mankind or

serve it,.....

spiritualist is like going away(from the body),buddhist go toward

nothingtness, hindus toward god.

 

K

www./groups/mysticism_online

 

In , "N.Madasamy"

<ashwini_puralasamy> wrote:

> "Fear of death is the continuous desire to live which is rooted

even in the minds of the wise. (II. ix.)"

> Thank You Omprem. Just some thoughts : Can we remove this fear of

death [ yes! of course we can ] but how? This brings me back to my

many other encounters. As ex hospice nurse I am being asked this

question many times : Why me? but most often I received this : I am

afraid to die ! I am not ready! Its like talking to someone who is

being condemn to die and not knowing what crime they have committed.

It's a soul searching encounter, but can be very painful at time.

>

> Someone told me once, it is this fear of death that majority of

people becomes spiritualist. Should this be the reason?

>

>

>

>

**********************************************************************

********************************

>

>

> ".. you may shoot me with your words... you may cut me with your

eyes ... you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still like air,

I will rise ..."

>

> Maya Angelou

>

> " Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a

while and leave foot prints on our heart and we are never ever the

same again "

>

> Shakti Sadhana Homepage at http://www.shaktisadhana.org

>

>

>

> Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes

>

>

[Guest guest]

OM fellow traveller

 

You mention, "Someone told me once, it is this fear of death that

majority of people becomes spiritualist. Should this be the

reason?"

 

I would like to add to my earlier response to this query.

 

To start, here is a poem by Rabindranath Tagore that focuses

exquisitely on your question:

 

I didn't know that You came to my shore

When the stormy night broke down my door.

The lamp went out and my world was in darkness.

For whom did I raise my hands to the sky limitless?

In darkness I did stay, thinking I was dreaming,

Didn't know the storm was your victory-banner flying.

In the morning, in awe, I did see You standing

Upon the emptiness of my home and my being.

 

To me what is being said is that through Maya we gradually lose

contact with the Divine, with the Divine in ourselves and others,

with ourselves and others as the Divine, when we instead

identify with the gross evidence of the senses and believe

ourselves to be separate and creatures of flesh and blood. We

seek pleasure or happiness but the happiness we obtain is a

thin sugar-coating over pain and unhappiness.

 

It is in those moments of intense unhappiness and dejection,

whether from being about to die from some disease or accident,

or whether someone we love is about to die, or whether a love

relationship has died, or whether we going through the dark

night of the soul, that we not only feel alone and are dejected,

defenseless and inward but we become dimly aware of the

Divine within and without us. This is where hope comes from.

 

The collapse of our world is the collapse of our attempts to

constuct a reality by projecting our attention outward. Such

attempts are bound to fail, and fail repeatedly, as we all know

from personal experience. But the collapse of our constructed

world is also the rise of the Truth. We turn inward to heal our

wounds and in doing so become somewhat aware of Divinity.

Divinity's victory banner is the collapse of the world of Maya and It

continues to fly over the rubble of our Maya world. We now have

a choice. We can continue to mourn over the loss of the unreal or

we can recognize the Divine within and turn our efforts to

developing our perception and identification of the Divine.

 

The Divine is always there but we are not always aware of the

Divine because we are enamoured with the ephemeral as a

cheap, quick fix. When the ephemeral dissolves, we are left with

the Divine. We intuit the Divine. At those times of dissolution, will

we choose to know the Divine through continued sadhana, a

process of emotionally disengaging from the world of Maya,

embarking on self-inquiry, trusting our intuition of the Unseen,

and developing an orientation to the Divine in ourselves and

others?

 

Or, will we choose to return to the world of Maya that we know,

even though we know it characterized by long periods of

unhappiness, some of which is overlain by short periods of

pleasure?

 

So, there are many types of death. They are all fertile

opportunities for spiritual progress if we trust our intuition and

pay attention to the silence that accompanies each death.

 

OM Aim Hrim Klim Chamundaye Viche Namaha

 

Omprem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

, "N.Madasamy"

<ashwini_puralasamy> wrote:

> "Fear of death is the continuous desire to live which is rooted

even in the minds of the wise. (II. ix.)"

> Thank You Omprem. Just some thoughts : Can we remove this

fear of death [ yes! of course we can ] but how? This brings me

back to my many other encounters. As ex hospice nurse I am

being asked this question many times : Why me? but most often

I received this : I am afraid to die ! I am not ready! Its like talking

to someone who is being condemn to die and not knowing what

crime they have committed. It's a soul searching encounter, but

can be very painful at time.

>

> Someone told me once, it is this fear of death that majority of

people becomes spiritualist. Should this be the reason?

>

>

>

>

**********************************************************************

********************************

>

>

> ".. you may shoot me with your words... you may cut me with

your eyes ... you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still like

air, I will rise ..."

>

> Maya Angelou

>

> " Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay

for a while and leave foot prints on our heart and we are never

ever the same again "

>

> Shakti Sadhana Homepage at http://www.shaktisadhana.org

>

>

>

> Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes

>

>